NAME¶

shuf - Shuffle the input by outputting a random permutation of input lines. Each output permutation is equally likely. With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

SYNOPSIS¶

shuf [-e|--echo] [-i|--input-range] [-n|--head-count] [-o|--output] [--random-seed] [--random-source] [-r|--repeat] [-z|--zero-terminated] [-h|--help] [-V|--version] [file-or-args]

DESCRIPTION¶

Shuffle the input by outputting a random permutation of input lines. Each output permutation is equally likely. With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

OPTIONS¶

-e, --echo

treat each ARG as an input line

-i, --input-range <LO-HI>

treat each number LO through HI as an input line

-n, --head-count <COUNT>

output at most COUNT lines

-o, --output <FILE>

write result to FILE instead of standard output

--random-seed <STRING>

shuf-help-random-seed

--random-source <FILE>

get random bytes from FILE

-r, --repeat

output lines can be repeated

-z, --zero-terminated

line delimiter is NUL, not newline

-h, --help

Print help

-V, --version

Print version

[file-or-args]

VERSION¶

v(uutils coreutils) 0.7.0

EXAMPLES¶

Randomize the order of lines in a file and output the result:

shuf path/to/file

Only output the first 5 entries of the result:

shuf [-n|--head-count] 5 path/to/file

Write the output to another file:

shuf path/to/input_file [-o|--output] path/to/output_file

Generate 3 random numbers in the range 1-10 (inclusive, numbers can repeat):

shuf [-n|--head-count] 3 [-i|--input-range] 1-10 [-r|--repeat]

The examples are provided by the tldr-pages project <https://tldr.sh> under the CC BY 4.0 License. Please note that, as uutils is a work in progress, some examples might fail.